DIARY: Special advisers hit by Forth's forthrightness

MP Eric Forth was scathing in his attack: 'If a minister can't do his job without special advisers then they shouldn't be doing the job.'

Forth claimed special advisers tended to lack experience of the 'real world'. When presented with a roll-call of former advisers, including the cabinet's Patricia Hewitt and Jack Straw, he replied: 'I rest my case.'